Projects
by Dark Nemesis 7
Summary: Warning, Pokemon and human love A scientist working with a Lucario finds himself liking his job a little too much.


Hey guys, I'm back again with a story of the same level of mediocrity that you have come to expect of me. A mild warning is in order; if you dislike the concept of Pokemon and human love, then turn back no. No, not lovin', there is no sexuality or even cursing in the story. Enough from me, though, let the reading begin! Oh yes, whether you thought it was terrible or good, please let me know, it takes longer for someone to improve if they don't know what they're doing wrong or right! 

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Jacques had a secret. 

Now, Jacques wasn't special. He wouldn't have considered himself above or below average in any way, really, the only thing that set him apart from other people being that he had never had any of his own Pokémon, though he had spent his childhood amongst his parents' six. No, as far as scientists went, and especially as far as people went, Jacques was nothing above ordinary.

Yet Jacques had a secret.

It had begun shortly after he had been promoted. He had been a lab assistant working on a project concerning Clefairy and the stages of the moon, and then one day, message came down from the top: his meticulous attention to detail and ability to draw correct conclusions had gotten him noticed, and he'd been assigned to a more difficult project. It was concerning the gender differences in Lucario, and he was specifically working with their rare female Lucario. He was to attend to domestic things such as feeding her and studying her personality. Her name was Saka. 

The first time they'd met, he had been struck by her intelligence and her cheeriness. Saka was serious, but always friendly, even when injured from fighting during tests. As they spent more time together, he got to know her better, and they even got to the point where they could nearly talk. She said that she had never met another Lucario, and asked if he'd had Pokémon. Jacques told her that he hadn't, and she smiled a little. Something had happened then that he didn't understand yet. 

She found ways to surprise him after a few months of working together. Saka bounded up to him on his birthday and placed something in his hands the moment he entered her room. It was a friendship bracelet. "I made it from the strings I collected when people dropped them off of their clothing," she told him, her tail wagging from irrepressible dog-like instincts. He had been touched, and when her birthday came a week later, Jacques brought her one as well. He had never been good at craftwork, but something had made him do it, and she had been delighted by the colours. Blinking away small tears, she told him that no one had ever actually befriended her, and from then on, he had found himself thinking of the Lucario even outside of work. 

On the day that marked five months of the two working together, Saka called Jacques into the bathroom. There were no cameras in there, and Jacques wondered what she didn't want to get out to the lab for a moment before entering the room. She was holding one of his pencils and smiling radiantly. "I prepared this for you," she conveyed, then squatted onto the tile and began to write. 'My name is Saka. I am two years old. I am a female Lucario, and my favourite food is Farfetch'd,' the pencil etched, scritching on the flawless floor. Jacques's mouth was agape. "Saka! How did you learn to write?" he asked in shock, and she smiled up at him. 'I watched you,' came the response on the floor, and this elicited a deep blush from him. "But you took me in here because there are no cameras, right? Why don't you want the lab to know? You must be a genius to be able to teach yourself!" he exclaimed. She looked at him with a tired sorrow in her red eyes, and he understood quickly. "Because it'd mean more tests. All right. I won't tell them. But… Wow, Saka, you're something else," he said, admiration evident in his voice as he took her paw and smiled at her. Her grin back elicited the same feelings it had all that time ago, but this time, they were more insistent and stronger, and continued burning from that point on. He looked forward to being with Saka and almost doodled her name on an official report more than once. 

Jacques hadn't understood entirely until an article in the newspaper drew his attention one night after work. It was about a girl who narrowly evaded being caught by the police after a spy-cam had picked up on something labelled deeply disturbing. She had been recorded telling her Absol that she loved it and kissing it, treating it in general romantic ways. Sexual activity had not been caught. The police had barely mentioned coming out with her hands up before she had fled and no one had been able to catch up with either her or the Absol, whom the police said had probably been brainwashed into reciprocating her feelings. "We have to take a firm stance against interspecies relationships," the chief had said in closing, and it was at that moment, half-awake and distracted, that Jacques thought, 'Well, that's an issue for me, because I'm in love with Saka.' He froze as the idea materialized fully. It was true. And now…

Now Jacques had a secret.

Denial had chased him that night. Jacques fingered the friendship bracelet on his left wrist until dawn, desperately fighting the feelings in his heart. It was impossible! She was a Pokémon, a Lucario, and he, well, he was a human. It wasn't right! And… And even if he DID have those feelings, he couldn't tell anyone, especially not his coworkers. What if he was to tell her? Assuming Saka didn't feel like her trust had been horribly violated and told someone else, assuming she felt the same, what would ever come of such feelings, anyway? They couldn't have a relationship in the lab, and even outside of it, couldn't consummate it. Yet by the time morning broke over the horizon and sent its pink and gold shimmers through the man's bedroom, his feelings had won out, and tentatively, he accepted his new status as a lover of Pokémon in the most socially unacceptable way. 

That day at the lab, Jacques entered Saka's quarters as quietly as he could and found her asleep in her bed. He smiled softly to himself as he watched her, seeming to see her for the first time. Her sapphire-coloured fur was soft and luxuriant despite the battles she fought against machines as a test of her strength, and the black and cream-yellow spots were no different in their quality. Her ears flickered slightly as she dreamed, probably of an outside world that she'd only seen in pictures. It was with a small amount of pride that Jacques remembered that he had washed these sheets himself; it was this pride that motivated him to prepare a special breakfast for her this morning.

When she woke up, she sought him out and was pleased to see that he'd made Psyduck this morning rather than the usual Rattata mix. "What's the occasion?" she asked in her native tongue, and Jacques merely shrugged happily. "I don't need an occasion to want to surprise you," he informed her. She smiled a small, touched smile. "Thank you," she responded, and he could tell that she meant it. 

When she went for testing, the young man did something that he had never done before. He followed a few minutes after and watched her from behind the glass. She was excellent with speed, mental and defence examinations, but her attack power was severely lacking. By the standards of most Trainers, she would not have been particularly worth training, but Jacques wasn't a Trainer, so the fact that she was out there at all caused admiration to stir in him. Even though one of her legs had gotten scraped up a few days ago, she dodged as though she was merely dancing. For some reason, this made her attractive to him in ways humans had never been.

Jacques did not tell her that he had watched her, though even as the monotonous days melded into months, he never forgot. He became closer with the Lucario, who was eager and willing to be around him, and even his coworkers told him that they admired his ability to get along with Saka. "It's easy when you love your work," was his truthful response. When she was there, their personalities seemed to fit perfectly. Both of them were serious and liked to think, but friendly as well, and though Jacques had the tendency to become dispirited in the face of such things as tax times and car insurance, Saka's cheer made it easy to forget about the world outside of the lab. When one day the young man found a dropped photograph of her (it was certainly her and not another Lucario, she had some nicks in the spike on her left paw), he thanked his luck and hid it in his pants to take home, and now her optimism followed him everywhere.

But shortly after the 25 year old's eighth month being there began, everything changed.

It was an inconspicuous enough day. The cloudless sky seemed like a good omen to Jacques as he left his car that morning. Saka was already awake and waiting happily for him when he came in, and all through breakfast, he paid attention to every move she made and word she said. When she left for testing, no sense of foreboding shadowed over him. He busied himself with food inventory and notes on the Lucario's general self.

"Jacques Falstone, please report to the ER immediately, Jacques Falstone," came a voice on the intercom around noon. Praying that it was for something innocuous, the man made his way there as quickly as he could, and found himself faced with a dismaying scene. His beloved Lucario was shuddering violently, blood seeping down her torso from beneath stained bandages, and her ruby eyes were closed as tightly as they could be. Doctors were attaching machines to her and flitting about in a general murmur, putting papers in envelopes and checking vital statistics like a single-minded body. One approached him with a look of deep sorrow in her eyes. "You're Mr. Falstone, right?" she questioned, and when he nodded, she continued. "Saka was injured by a machine in a freak accident about an hour ago. We've run some tests, and it looks like she'll never be able to attack again, or even walk much. Head office says," and now she dropped her voice, "Head office says that tomorrow, we'll be putting her down. She's in a lot of pain, and it'll be with her for the rest of her life otherwise. You know that as a Steel-type, no painkillers will work on her. Everyone in the building knows how close you are to her, so we thought it'd be best to give you time to say goodbye."

Shock numbed Jacques' body like a slow ooze over his form. Thoughts racing and heart breaking, he sat down on an orange chair beside Saka's bed and watched her. When the doctors finally left an hour later, the scientist tentatively stretched out a hand and took her paw in it. "Saka," he murmured, then found himself unable to continue. She paused in her shaking for a moment and opened one eye to register his presence. "Luu," she replied weakly, wordlessly. "You're not alone," he whispered as the dam broke and he began to cry. "I'm here for you. I'll be here until the end." With difficulty, she moved on the bed to be a bit closer to him, and his heart fluttered even as it ached. She drifted off into unconsciousness soon, but Jacques didn't join her. He watched her from her bedside until long after the other scientists had gone home, and when she awoke at around seven at night, he was there and smiling. "Hello again, Saka," he greeted. She was unable to reply, but that was all right. He stayed with her in silence, rubbing her paw gently around the spike, and communicated his dedication to her in this way until midnight, at which point he dropped off into an uneasy yet exhausted sleep.

The man awoke with a start the next morning and immediately checked a clock. The time was barely after nine. People would be filing in now, but Jacques himself would file out soon for the very last time. He mentally berated himself for his inability to savour his last night with the Lucario more as he straightened his coat, then inquired, "Saka?" A tiny smile on her face was the only response he got, but it was enough to signal that she was doing a bit better, and could perhaps take knowledge of her fate better. "Saka," he muttered, savouring the sound of her name on his tongue, "There's something I have to tell you. You're-"

At that precise moment, the door opened. "Jacques, you're already here?" the doctor from the previous day asked. "It's time now. Everything is prepared. Since you're present, do you think that you could carry her to the euthanasia room?" Saka stiffened visibly upon hearing those words. Both of her eyes flew open and fixed themselves on his, saying, 'You didn't tell me, but you knew what was going to happen.' Jacques was unable to hide his sorrow as he slowly removed all of the wires and needles from her furred form, but his emotions didn't impair his control over his movements, which were gentle. He lifted Saka in the bridal position – 'How ironic,' his mind told him – and traversed the halls with her in the utmost care.

The nondescript door marking the euthanasia room came into sight altogether too fast. The doctor who had lead him directed him in, then instructed him to place Saka on the solitary chair there. When this was done, she didn't turn back. "You can go now," she told him, and Jacques almost complied before what felt like a wall in his mind stopped him. This lady didn't know Saka. She wouldn't be able to comfort her in her last seconds as he could. "If you don't mind, I'd like to do it myself," he responded in a husky voice. Seeing his emotion, she only paused a moment before nodding. "I understand. This is the syringe you'll be using. It has nothing but air in it, which will travel to her heart and cause it to explode. We would use a more painless method, but no injections work. Lastly, here is her Poké Ball. You'll need to break the hinge and put it in the recycling after the deed is done. I'll give you your privacy now. My condolences," she said, then abruptly took her leave. Jacques stood for a moment after the door clicked shut again and waited for the footsteps to fade in the hall before turning to Saka with the two items in hand. She had managed to flutter both of her eyes open. "Car," she said vaguely. His heart dropped. "Oh, Saka," he said as tears began to overwhelm him. "They said you'd never get better and that you'd always be in pain." She looked wistfully up at him and blinked away tears of her own. She didn't have to say anything for him to understand this expression. Living in pain was preferable to her to dying. He dropped his head to the floor, and in doing so, caught sight of the friendship bracelet on his wrist. Pain rippled through him in waves as he thought about what it had come to mean to him now. "Saka, I…. I think you should know something before you go," he began. At first, he had to force himself to speak, but as he went, it became effortless to do so. "When I first accepted the job of working with you, I thought it would be nothing special. I was completely wrong. Saka, it took me a while to realize it, but I had fallen hard and fast for you, and… I know it's not right, but Saka, I love you. I'm sorry if that betrays your trust in me, but it's true. I've… I've never loved anyone like I love you." 

The Pokémon looked up at him now, wistful eyes trained on his form. He almost felt uncomfortable under her soft gaze, until finally, she motioned slightly towards something behind him. It was a table. Understanding as though telepathically, Jacques fetched a clipboard and a piece of paper for her and placed it on her lap, and with difficulty, the Lucario took the pencil in hand and began to etch. Her words weren't as neat as they had been before, and they took a few moments to get down, but when she motioned for him to come over, he found that they were words that meant the same thing no matter what they looked like written. 

'I love you too. I did the moment you gave me the bracelet.' And just as he finished registering this, Saka leaned forwards and licked his cheek.

It was at this moment that something changed deep within Jacques. Trembling slightly, he stood up straight and grabbed a body bag from the back of the room, then placed it on the floor in front of his former project. He stuffed the needle into a relatively safe pocket of his lab jacket before delicately lifting Saka up and putting her in the bag. "Lu?" she asked. "Getting you out of here, that's what," he replied. He took a second to fold up the piece of paper he had gotten the message and put it with the syringe and Poké Ball before zipping up the bag and ever so delicately lifted it up, then ran. 

Jacques didn't meet anyone on his way back to his office. Once there, he gathered as many of his belongings as he could and grabbed his coat, which he raced to his car with. He placed Saka on the back seat before taking his keys from his jacket and revving the engine, then taking off. City windows shimmered over the two as he travelled to his apartment. 

It was difficult taking Saka up to his home, but he did it. As gently as he could, Jacques placed her on his bed and tucked the sheets around her. She had been sleeping in the cocoon of the body bag, but now she fluttered into wakefulness and watched him with curiosity. He brought her a pencil and paper when she indicated that she wanted them, and immediately, she jotted down, 'Why did you save me? Aren't you risking your job?' Jacques smiled with a hint of sadness. "How could I kill the one I loved, especially knowing she felt the same back and didn't want to die? I think being with you is worth my job. I think," and here he paused, trying to put it into words, "I think that being with you is worth almost anything. If you feel the same… To heck with social standards! Love is love. I don't care if you can't fight or won't be able to walk far ever again. It's not like I can stay here anymore now – we can take the money I've saved and move out to the country to buy a secluded place for just you and me, where I can take care of you. I can rent a trailer for my things and we'll be gone by evening. I'll change my name and lay low until you're in better condition, then get a job somewhere where we won't be in the public eye a lot. What do you think, Saka? If you want, we can live like…. Like husband and wife." 

She smiled. No words needed to be communicated to tell Jacques what her answer was. He tucked her down into the covers, then raced to the phone, where he loaned a moving trailer for his car, and once that was done, cancelled his contract with his landlord. The man who delivered the trailer helped him put things like his couch into it, and, true to his word, Jacques was leaving the city with Saka sleeping in the back seat by the time he would have gotten off work. 

The pair drove late into night. The young man made sure that his Lucario companion was doing okay once an hour until he arrived at a town far from where he had originally been and paid for a motel room. There, he put Saka on the bed and nearly went to sleep on the floor before he heard her call from behind him. He turned around to find her beckoning him to sleep beside her. Cheeks flushed, he changed in the bathroom, then turned out the light and watched his beloved sleep with elatedness bubbling up in his heart until his exhaustion pulled him out of the conscious world for a time. 

Real estate was the task at hand when the next morning came around. Jacques redressed Saka's wounds with some of his sheets, noting with relief that they weren't life threatening in and of themselves, then placed some food beside her and told her that he was going to find them somewhere to live. She hastily scrawled something down on the paper he kept handy for her and beckoned him close before he left. 'I love you,' it read. "I love you, too," he replied, and before he could think about it, he bent down and kissed her cheek. The feeling of euphoria from this small act stayed with him for the rest of the day.

It took a few days, but finally, Jacques rushed back into the rented room with a happy whoop. "I found the perfect place, Saka! It's in the middle of nowhere and naturally closed in, so no one will intrude on us and you can finally see what nature looks like for yourself! There'll even be other Pokémon – not Lucario, probably, because your kind is so rare – but you won't have to be lonely!" Her eyes glowed as she looked up at him, affirming that he had made the right decision, and he showed her a large envelope, saying, "This is the deed. We can move in right now." And with that, he wrapped his love in the last of his old sheets and brought her to their new home. It was over an hour away, but she stayed up for the entire ride despite the pain, and when they reached the home, he could hear her intake breath slightly. Lush green grass grew in abundance between the trees, which were like copper with emeralds set in the top. The late afternoon sun cast warm shadows over the world, and as Jacques lifted Saka from the car, she showed him what she'd written when they arrived. 'It's beautiful,' the paper read. He kissed her again on the forehead and brought her through the doorway bridal-style.

It took a great deal of wiggling and working alone, but Jacques got all of the furniture into the house by nightfall. All he really had that was of any size was a loveseat, a table, an armchair, a desk, a bookcase and a dresser since the bed had belonged to the apartment, so he didn't have as much trouble as he could have had getting things out of the trailer. The house was not particularly big, but had been well-kept by its previous owners, who had left some of their furniture themselves. To the pair's good fortune, one of these things was a double bed in a room with a large bay window with a seat. Saka was here, staring out at the late-spring world, and when Jacques was finished moving belongings into the house, he sat down beside her with a smile. "And to think, only a week ago, none of this would ever have been possible," he murmured. She nodded. He had noticed that her ability to make small movements had returned, but her walking hadn't, and speaking was still too tough. The machine had affected her energy system more than it had hurt her body. When he snapped out of his daze watching her, he realized that she was writing, and she showed him after a moment. It read, 'Why do you love me?' No pondering was needed to give this answer. "Because you're kind, graceful, smart, fun, and you actually liked me for me. You're very pretty, too. You have a slender frame and an aura of self-confidence around you," he said. Humbly, she looked down at the cushion of the window-seat.

Jacques waited a moment before asking her question back. "Why do you love me?" There was a slight pause before she began to write. It was much more deliberate this time and took a few minutes before she handed over the paper for him to read. 'You were the first person to care about me beyond a project. You treated me well, respected me and were fun to be around, too. You're handsome, and are different enough from me to be interesting. I've never met my own kind, but I doubt that they value intelligence as much as you do, a value which we both share.' He was touched. The corners of his mouth lifted as he gently reached out to take the one he loved into his arms. A new life for them both was beginning now, one that they could share together. 

Months passed. Saka's pain lessened over time into a dull throb when she tried to walk, something that she could now do in small amounts. She was unable to use any kinds of attacks at all, but that no longer mattered to either being. Jacques watched over her, doing work over the internet so that he could be with his beloved whenever she needed him. Late spring turned to early fall as the two got to know each other as well as they could and found that the species difference made them no less compatible. The paper mused as to the whereabouts of a missing scientist and the Pokémon he was working with, but no police people came to ask questions, and they lived in happiness that neither would have expected waited for them in their old lives.

It was a clear day not unlike that fateful one so long ago when Jacques stumbled on a peculiar thing in the woods while searching for moss samples to mail to his job. A woman not much younger than him was walking wearily with a white and black Pokémon beside her. Jacques knew without need of words who she was. "You're that girl who ran away because she was in love with her Absol," he said clearly, and she stopped stock still to turn and look at him. Greenery, dirt, and twigs mottled her unkempt hair. "What are you going to do about?" she asked defensively. "Thank you. It was when I read about you that I realized my own feelings for a Lucario. I bet you've been on the run for a while now. Do you want to come to my home? You and your Absol could have a bath," he offered. She scrutinized him until her Pokémon nudged against her leg, at which point she nodded. "If Acelieux says we can trust you, then please," she responded. As they trudged, they talked. "My name is Katja, and as you know, his name is Acelieux," she informed him as they went. "I'm Jacques, and the Lucario I live with is called Saka," he told her back.

Saka was waiting in the living room when Jacques returned home. She looked worried by the presence of others until they introduced themselves and Jacques explained, "They're like us." She understood and allowed him to pull her close on the loveseat, and this seemed to be a cue to Katja, who collapsed on the armchair and curled up exhaustedly with Acelieux, saying, "You have no idea what it's like to do this after so many months on the run." Acelieux nuzzled his head under her chin, taking care to keep the scythe away from her face as he did so, and she kissed the top of his head. "I always thought I was the only one," she remarked after a time. Jacques nodded, responding, "I wonder how many others like us feel like they're alone." And at that moment, Katja's eyes flew open and stared into his, and he knew that they had just had the exact same idea at the same time.

There was a larger purpose to Jacques's life after that day. Katja stayed with him until she could get a job in town and bought a plot just outside of the forest. Together, they made some cryptic flyers and posted them in a few nearby towns. To normal people, they would appear to be innocuous newspaper articles with some unrelated nonsense written underneath, but to those with a guilty conscious, the fact that all of them were about people and Pokémon running away together would be evident, and the nonsense would be seen as a part of the article – a meeting place on a Saturday a few towns over. The flyers went up with more than a little fear on the part of the four refugees, but to their relief, none questioned it, and in fact, it wasn't long before a meeting of about twenty people and their Pokémon took off every second weekend in Katja's barn. When it came to Jacques's attention that some people were simply too far away to make the drive and others knew of people even farther away who would benefit from such activities, he began to put together an email newsletter, and this was even more successful than the meetings. 

Lying awake on the day that marked a year since he had been a part of normal society, Jacques found himself completely content. His adventure was only just beginning, but he wasn't facing it by himself now. He had Katja, Acelieux, and all of the other people whose lives he had changed by allowing them to know that they weren't alone. Change had begun, even if the rest of the world didn't know it yet. And even if the rest of the world never knew and there had been none like him, he still wouldn't have been alone, because as long as he had Saka nestled in his arms, he had all he ever needed, and that was no secret.


End file.
